Konoha Boarding School
by Straightshot
Summary: The Legend of Naruto, retold in the environment of high school hormones and strict boarding school rules. How will the legend change? How will it stay the same? Don't ask me, read the story! NaruxHina? NaruxSaku? Again, read the story to find out!
1. Prologue

_22 Years Ago..._

_He approached the gate to the Konoha and stopped, taking one last look around at the village that had been his home for so long. For one moment he actually thought of not doing this, that he should stay here and forget about his fri- his former, teammate. Then that one memory suddenly popped into his head._

"_You are fool, now I will show the price of your foolish ideals of friendship."_

_The memory sparked the pain in his left arm and all doubt washed away in an instant and he knew he had to go. He took a few steps out of the village when a voice suddenly stopped him._

"_Where are you going?" the cold female voice whispered into the night air._

_He suddenly stopped walking as a strong gust of wind ominously passed._

"_I asked you a question!" she yelled angrily._

"_That temper of yours is going to get you in trouble, you know?" he answered sarcastically._

"_Answer the question!"_

_He suddenly turned to face her. The harsh look on her face startled him but he didn't let his composure show it. He met her glare with his own emotionless gaze._

"_I going to get him back." he answered calmly._

"_Why?" she asked the desperation seeping over the edge of her words, "Why does it have to be your responsibility?"_

"_It's not a responsibility, it's something I want to do. That I need to do." he said keeping his voice as calm as possible, masking pain he felt inside._

"_He's far past saving and you know it!" she yelled at him trying to keep back the tears._

"_Probably. But I need to do this, not just for him, but for me. No matter what, he was... is my best friend. I won't abandon him." with that he silently turned and started to walk away._

"_Jiraiya!" Tsunade yelled at her former teammate._

"_Goodbye Tsunade, be strong, protect your brother and the village. Do something more for the village that I never could." with that last whispering line carrying through the air to Tsunade's ears, Jiraiya left the village, officially breaking apart the Legendary Sannin and Tsunade from her best friend._

_15 Years Ago..._

_Trees and mountains collapsed under it's mighty tails as hurricanes and storms lifted destroying everything within miles. Every step the creature took shook the earth terribly and it's horribly powerful chakra burning apart everything in sight. Ninjas from Konohagakure all tried capturing the figure with Chakra endowed spears and nets. Some threw exploding tags or used earth techniques, but nothing could penetrate the beast's terrible chakra. Bodies lay around dead from it's devastation, and most were either injured or tending to the wounded._

"_We have to run!" someone yelled frightened by the Kyuubi's horrible roars._

"_No! We stay here until the Yondaime gets here!" another shouted, wrapping his torn shirt around his head to keep the blood out of his eyes._

"_There's no one left! Platoons 1-89 are all gone! We have to retreat!" he shouted shrilly as others began to run._

"_NO! Our orders were to stay here until Yondaime reports! We have to believe in him!" still despite these orders some began to run while others stayed either out of faith or inability to move because of their injuries._

_Suddenly a figure crashed onto the ground with a deafening shock. As she slowly rose, the busty woman stood tall, and just like that, some regained hope._

"_Who needs medical attention?" she asked loudly to the remaining soldiers._

_Then two figures landed behind her with a much quieter entrance but still, it was as if the entire battlefield went silent from their arrival as the two figures stood proudly. Tsunade quickly turned around to see a sight that did give her a slight sigh of relief. There stood Jiraiya and the Yondaime._

"_Finally, you're here." Tsunade said quietly._

"_Tsunade, quickly gather the wounded. Jiraiya-sensei, could you please scour for any leftover soldiers?" the Yondaime ordered quickly to the two ninjas who praised as Legendary._

"_Right!"_

"_Roger!"_

_Soon they both dispersed and the Yondaime went to the General._

"_How many are left?" he asked quietly._

"_75, maybe 80." the general reported._

"_I see." the Yondaime muttered quietly._

_Soon, Jiraiya and Tsunade reappeared next to the Yondaime._

"_All living soldiers have been cleared off the battle field." Jiraiya reported._

"_I've healed all lethal injuries and healed as many as I could." Tsunade reported after Jiraiya._

"_Good. General, tell your men to clear out. At least fifty yards." the general suddenly looked at the Yondaime surprised by such an odd order._

"_But sir-"_

"_Go." the Yondaime muttered quietly his voice sounding so tired and defeated._

"_H-hai." the general agreed after a moment's hesitation._

_Soon all the ninja who could walk stood from their posts and helped those who either were unable to stand from withstanding injuries or were unconscious and unable to leave. They all dispersed within a few seconds and the only ones left were those three. For a moment they all stood there frozen, when the roar of the creature could be heard it was as if they came out of a trance and knew what they needed to do. Sort of._

"_So, what's left?" Tsunade asked quietly._

"_This creature is unstoppable, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was immortal, so there is no technique that can kill it. Not only that but no jutsu can even hope to break through that powerful chakra." Jiraiya said grimly._

"_Then I guess I'll be joining you soon Nawaki-neechan." Tsunade whispered to herself, the face of her little brother appearing in her mind, like a ghost of a flash, but that's all he was now, a ghost._

"_No, there's still one technique left." the Yondaime whispered._

_All that could be heard in those few seconds were the wind as it whistled ominously at that very moment and the progressively louder sounds of the Kyuubi's path of destruction._

"_Can you use that technique? Were you able to mater it finally?" Tsunade asked suddenly brimming with hope._

"_I won't let you use it. It-" but before Jiraiya could finish the Yondaime appeared in a flash and Jiraiya was out cold from the fierce and decisive blow he had gotten to the stomach._

"_Gomen, Jiraiya-sensei." the Yondaime whispered quietly as Jiraiya fell to the ground, now unconscious, "Tsunade, if you would please."_

_Tsunade nodded and picked Jiraiya's limp body up off of the ground and hoisted him over her shoulder to carry. He had come when the Kyuubi attacked and had given his support, but she knew it was only temporary. As soon as this was over, he would go right back to his personal vendetta. She guiltily enjoyed this moment of holding his unconscious form._

"_I'll go clear too." she said preparing to leave when Yondaime's hand had latched onto her shoulder._

"_There's one other favor I need from you Tsunade, after I have done this technique." the Yondaime whispered as he showed the small infant he removed from his cloak._

_She only looked at the child for a moment and realized what he was going to do. For a moment she didn't know what to say. She had a few ideas, some about what inspired the Yondaime to do this, another was if he understand what fate he was deciding for this child, then there were dozens about his logic behind doing this but none came out. All she could do was stare at the small infant in the Yondaime's arms who must have been no more then an hour old who was about to have his fate greatly changed. Then finally after her extended silence that had felt like several minutes but had probably only been a few seconds, she came out with something to say:_

"_What's his name?" _

_Present_

"NARUTO UZUMAKI!!!!!!!!" Iruka-sensei yelled as the giant poster unfurled itself.

There up on the giant billboard behind all of the students who had gotten their diplomas was a very large poster of Iruka-sensei in his underwear, unshaved and uncombed, scratching his butt, all the while looking in the mirror with what looked like a very content but tired face. Naruto stood with his diploma laughing the most of anyone, appreciating the handiwork he had done as his final prank at _Konoha Junior High School For Boys. _The next part was always his favorite though.

The chase.

"Yaa-haha!!!" he laughed loudly as he started to run from a very steaming and red Iruka-sensei.

"NNNNAAAAARUUUUUTTOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


	2. Explode: The Uzumaki Chronicles Begin!

**A/N: **Well here's where it all starts. Enjoy! Also I would have a disclaimer but if you really thought I owned Naruto then you really should read more books instead of fanfiction. Go on, skeedadle!

"NARUTOOO!!!!"

"Yah-ha-haaa!!!"

They said it couldn't be done. They said that it would never happen, but it did. Naruto finally graduated and his elation couldn't be any greater. He was on top of the world and no one could knock him down. He liked to think that that little prank he pulled on Iruka-sensei would be a nice story kids would tell their parents about their graduation.

Naruto was now fifteen years-old and had been living in the southern village of Konoha, Tane for three years now. It's name meant "seed," because supposedly this was the place the Yondaime Hokage was born and therefore all the promising seedlings of Konoha lived here before they became legendary Shinobi.

Boy was Naruto looking forward to when his day finally came around.

The village was a warm and sunny place that barely ever saw rain. It would sometimes get gusty in the Fall but was a generally peaceful place. The animals and the people were generally nice and Naruto really did enjoy living there. Then again in comparison to some of the other places he had lived, that wasn't saying much.

For a long time he remembered being completely alone bouncing from foster-home to foster-home, no one really wanting him. He would have liked to say that that was the worst part of his life but it really wasn't. His foster-families may have been negligent but at least they provided food and shelter. Before that, he lived in the town orphanage and even though some of the people were nice, the kids were pretty nasty. Not as nasty as the meals of course or the mold that ate at the walls, but still pretty damn bad.

His life went along like that until he was finally adopted by someone and it stuck, and he thanked Iruka-sensei everyday. Today though, he knew he had an easy target, Iruka-sensei being his class's teacher and all that footage from living with him, the prankster in him couldn't pass up the opportunity to impress his peers.

Naruto didn't have the greatest grades in his class but he thought he went by decently and his graduation proved it. Part of the problem was he couldn't sit still long enough in class to actually absorb anything ,but the other part was he just thought it was boring most of the time.

You see, Naruto was training to be a ninja, in case you hadn't guessed, and he was decent, but he knew not to lie and say his skills were more profound or amazing then they really were.

"WAHOO!!! I'm the greatest!!!" he shouted as hopped over a family picnicking and onto a sewer cap which he used as a spring-board onto the roof of a bakery.

He sat down for a minute to catch his breath and look up at the sky. He knew he could probably get Iruka-sensei to forgive him later as long as he got to yell for a while and Naruto pretended to listen, everything would be fine.

Naruto sat there though for a while thinking of what the future might hold for him. At this point, he knew what he was gonna do, but what was further for him? He wondered if he could really make it sometimes, if he was cut out for this kind of work. These doubts filled his head from time to time, but usually he didn't let them bother him. Suddenly Naruto sat back up and stopped thinking.

"I'm gonna be Hokage." he whispered to himself.

Steeling his resolve for a moment longer he knew that if anyone had to have faith in him, it had to be himself. With that thought on his mind he hopped off of the roof and into an alley. He looked around for the minute, but then remembering where he had to go, dashed off.

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"That Naruto, where did that little brat go..." Iruka whispered to himself as he wandered through the streets of Tane.

He knew Naruto could be a handful and a bit of a prankster when he wanted to be ,but Iruka really had to draw the line. Not only was he embarrassed in front of all of his graduating students, but also their parents, the faculty, the town elders, and every other possible person he could think of, that was at the graduation. He was just lucky the school board didn't decide to televise it.

Iruka was sure to find Naruto if he kept looking around the same spots that he usually hung out at. He turned a corner and was in the right district. Colored ribbons streamed between buildings and stands filled with games and candy of every kind. He knew Naruto liked to come to the gaming district whenever he had some free time or a full wallet. The people running around for all of the different games and activities. Some were kids about Naruto's age, others were younger and with parents, and some were kids a little older with dates. Guys trying to win prizes for their girlfriends and the girlfriends cheering them on from the sidelines.

Iruka missed the springtime of his youth sometimes. He wasn't that old really and he still had many good years. That's why some questioned why he wanted to adopt Naruto and he never really did have a full answer. On the one hand he did think Naruto needed the help of course, but it was more than that. He could see a little of himself in the boy. Iruka wasn't sure if that was the whole reason, but Iruka knew he would have wanted someone to take him in when he was all alone, and even though they only knew each other for a few years in school, he truly did like the boy.

Although if someone had asked him right at that moment, his answer might be a little different.

Now Iruka was running through the streets, careful not to bump into any people playing games or calmly trying to enjoy their day, unlike him. No, Iruka was on a man-hunt. He would find Naruto sooner or later and Iruka kept an optimistic attitude. Especially with that laughter he was hearing, and he was pretty sure he knew who it belonged to. He started to pick up the pace as he entered into a shop that sold fried squid. He headed towards the back where he heard some more laughter, but it wasn't just Naruto's laughter, there were multiple voices.

Had Naruto made some friends?

Iruka went to the back door of the shop, it was right next to the kitchen and you could smell the squid aroma permeating from the room. It was a bit nauseating, and Iruka was never a fan of fried squid. Nevertheless, Iruka got as close as possible to the kitchen so he practically had his ear against the back door.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha, that was pretty good Naruto." one boy said.

"Yeah, I gotta give you your props on that one." another commented.

"Thanks guys, it was really nothing. But it was cool right?" Naruto chimed in, and Iruka couldn't help but notice a small shaking in his voice.

"Yeah, it was nice, I guess." a third boy said.

"So, we can hang out this summer right?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Whoa, whoa, man, easy. It was good but it wasn't that good." the first boy said chuckling to himself.

"Come on, you just said it was good!" Naruto exclaimed now sounding sort of desperate.

For a moment there was silence and Iruka found himself holding his breath the entire time. He knew Naruto had problems making friends and wasn't very popular, but he hadn't realized how desperate Naruto had gotten for acceptance. Had he really been so blind?

"Yeah, but not good enough for us to hang out with a loser like you, Naruto." the third boy chuckled loudly, then Iruka could hear their footsteps as they walked away.

"Wait a minute!'" Naruto growled angrily and Iruka could hear him taking a few steps, but then a loud gut-wrenching noise stopped him, and he knew that one of those brats must have sucker-punched Naruto in the stomach because the next few seconds were filled with Naruto's coughs and gasps as he fell to the ground, with a loud splash, into a puddle.

"Back off man! Face it, you are, and always will be, the biggest loser in the universe." the third punk said as he and his friends walked away.

For a long grueling moment there was absolutely no sound heard through the alley and Iruka figured that Naruto was still sitting on the ground in a daze from his punch to the stomach. Iruka had known that Naruto had some troubles fitting in, but to go as far as using pranks to win recognition?

That was a pain Iruka was hoping he wouldn't have to hear about again

After a while he heard Naruto stand up and brush himself off as he slowly walked out of the alley. Even though Iruka couldn't see him, he could probably guess what Naruto looked like. He would cover his face with his arm like the sun was in his eyes, then start walk out of the alley through the shadows, not wanting to be noticed by anyone. It was at this point that Iruka left the fried squid shop and walked around to the alley where, sure enough, he spotted Naruto slinking along.

Iruka came up behind him calmly trying to make sure that his footsteps were slow and nonthreatening. Why, he wasn't sure but he just felt like he didn't want his footsteps to sound like he was going to attack. What Naruto needed right now was a calm ear, not a loud voice.

Iruka approached slowly and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto jumped and spun around to look at who had grabbed his shoulder, but when he saw Iruka he calmed for a moment. Then suddenly his worry spiked again when Naruto realized that he was still chasing him, but at the moment Iruka wasn't thinking about punishing Naruto at all. All he wanted to do was help this boy get through this tough time, the best way he knew how.

"Come on, let's get some ramen."

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The bar was small and dank with the scent of dried-up blood circulating through the air. The shadiest of characters were sitting at the bar and she knew that even though they weren't acting like it, her presence there was having an effect on the patrons. The bartender looked just as dark and shady as any of his customers. The bar was a dark and foreboding place that a person with any sense of caution wouldn't have entered.

"My kind of place." she whispered to herself.

She walked over to the bar and ordered up a couple of bottles of sake for herself and sat quietly reflecting. This was the best time of year for her. There was no work to worry about, no assistants telling her to do her paperwork and best of all, no bratty kids to deal with. She could just cut back and do some quality drinking.

Some would say that the reason she enjoyed drinking so much was because it helped numb the pain in her life, and there was no doubt in her mind that that was true, but there was more to it than that. She drink because it was something you could do by yourself when you had no one else. Because that's what she was: alone. So drinking was an activity to pass the time for her. Not to mention that she was practically an addict to the stuff at this point.

She had gotten better at dealing with the pain and sense of abandonment she felt over the years, but it still brought up bitter memories. The amount of death and blood she saw in her life was more than anyone wanted to see. She was fifty years old with no one to share memories with. Everyone she cared about was either long gone and unreachable, or dead.

"And so with this bitter taste in my mouth I take another swig!" Tsunade announced to herself as she took another shot of sake.

Unbeknown to her, Tsunade wasn't alone on this night, for she had someone not so far away, watching her every move, carefully counting the number of drinks she took, waiting for when she would drink his special little treat he left in one of her bottles. Also, it really didn't take much to bribe the bartender.

Sadly, this wasn't some creepy guy in the back admiring Tsunade's beauty like some guys (and girls) did, no this man was different. This was someone who had great plans in his mind for Tsunade and what she could get him. He wasn't a pervert or anything,oh, no. He was just a good business-man who knew exactly how much one of the Legendary Sannin would cost.

"Yeah, drink up you crazy, drunk, bitch." the man whispered to himself as he stepped out of the bar.

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"Itadakimasu!" Naruto and Iruka-sensei exclaimed together.

Iruka-sensei had bought Naruto the last couple bowls of ramen and Naruto wasn't sure why but he wasn't one to pass up a good opportunity. He made sure to order as much ramen as possible, as fast as possible. Beef, pork, barbecue pork, miso, whatever he could think of, Iruka-sensei was buying.

"Wow, nine bowls! Still want some more Naruto?" the waitress asked passing there table again.

"You know it!" Naruto declared handing her his bowl eagerly.

"You're actually trying to make me go broke, aren't you?" Iruka joked checking his wallet again and calculating the damage it was currently receiving in his head.

Naruto ignored the joke as his tenth bowl arrived at the table. He had to admit, the service was great at this place. Although, on the other hand there was the fact that the more, he ate the larger her tip would be, but whatever it was, he didn't care.

Iruka and Naruto liked to come to this restaurant over the weekends or whenever they just wanted some ramen. You see in Tane there were no actual ramen bars or anything, so if you wanted ramen, you would have to either buy the cheap instant kind, which was okay too, or you would have to come here. So that's what they did. All the time. ALL THE TIME...

"So, Naruto, what are your plans for the summer?" Iruka-sensei asked in between bites.

"This, coming here for ramen. Then going home and sleeping for 18 hours and then coming back here for ramen, and starting the whole process over again." Naruto declared proudly with a large mouthful of noodles.

"Well, that sounds... productive." Iruka-sensei said slowly, "Then what are your plans for next year? There's a good finisher school just a couple of block from your old one. I teach there too, so we could hang out together during the school day." Iruka-sensei added after finishing his third bowl of ramen.

"Well, that does sound nice, but I've already applied somewhere else." Naruto said calmly now slurping the soup out of his bowl.

"Oh, really? Where?" Iruka-sensei asked curiously, almost done with his bowl.

"Konoha Boarding school." Naruto said calmly putting his now empty bowl down.

At that moment, there was a loud clank that rang out through the entire restaurant, and for a moment everyone went completely still. Naruto stopped and looked up to see that Iruka-sensei had dropped his bowl on the table, spilling the last scant drops of his soup onto the table. The more alarming part though, was the look that Naruto was getting from Iruka-sensei at that moment. It was as if he had seen a ghost take a crap on Naruto's head. Maybe something worst.

"Where?" Iruka questioned all of a sudden.

"K-Konoha Boarding school." Naruto repeated quietly.

"Naruto, that's, that's- really?!! Look Naruto, I really don't want to put you down here, but Konoha Boarding school is one of the most prestigious ninja schools in the Fire Country! Hell it is the most prestigious! I've seen some of my best students, with the best grades, and the best skills, get turned down flat!" Iruka exclaimed animatedly.

"I don't think you realize what an important time you're in Naruto! The first eight years of schooling for ninjas is all basic stuff, but the last three are extremely important. That's when you learn real skills, and get ranked, and start accepting missions! You need to put your pride aside and start thinking about-"

"I know!" Naruto interrupted before Iruka-sensei could finish.

For a moment they both just sat there in complete silence and stared at each other. The tension was building in the room and every single second seemed to drag along. The sink in the kitchen was dripping little by little, and the frying pans sizzled quietly into the night, and all of the other patrons in the restaurant were talking amongst themselves in a calm manner, not even noticing these two people staring each other down. After a while Naruto slumped back into a sitting position, not even remembering when he had stood up.

"I know." Naruto whispered quietly, "But I know that that's my best chance to achieve my dream! There's no other school that will take me to the top!"

"Dream?" Iruka-sensei asked quietly.

"To become the greatest Hokage! Everyone knows the story of how the Yondaime came from this village, and I think that gives me a bit of an edge. I know that's a weak excuse, but when I think about where the best place for me is, I can't think of anywhere else! Konoha Boarding School has the reputation for being the best school in the entire Fire Country, and that's what I'm aiming for! The best! Even if they don't want to take me, I'll make them! I'll show them I've got the skills to do it and finally prove myself to village, and to anyone else who questions my greatness!" Naruto declared loudly standing up on the table for emphasis.

Iruka could only stare for a moment at this boy standing in front of him. At first he was thinking that it was sad that Naruto needed to feel confirmation in his existence, by doing such an impossible feat, but on the other hand he admired him. Naruto was at the very least doing something proud, and aiming for the sky and beyond. He just hoped that Naruto didn't end up hurt in the end.

"I hope you put that speech in the essay portion of the application." Iruka-sensei said with a smile.

"Essay portion?"

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Tsunade was stumbling along the dirt path that headed home, trying not to fall face first into anything. That would have just ruined her day entirely, or what was left of it anyway. She was pretty sure she must have spent a good couple of hours into the night, swigging away the sake.

"Whoa, nelly." she stated silently to herself as she sat down on a tree stump she spotted.

Tsunade was a regular drinker, that was true, but she just couldn't understand it though. She thought she had developed an immunity at this point, or at the very least, could stomach more of the stronger stuff now that she was older. Why was she suddenly so out of it?

She looked down the path ahead of her. It was a long dirt path that seemed to go on forever with trees all around the sides. It was obvious that the path cut through the forest of this smaller south village and lead back to main Konoha, but it was still pretty far from where she lived. Why did she have to go so far away? Now all she could think about was how tough it was going to be to go through the forest without running into a tree.

"Dammit, why is my vision so blurry?" Tsunade asked herself as she stood up, but then had to sit right back down as the nausea got to her.

"Am I really this drunk? Or maybe..."

"It sounds like you've pretty much realized it, haven't you?" a voice said out of the shadows of one of the trees down the path.

Tsunade quickly turned to the source of the voice and was faced by nothing but darkness, but after a moment of staring she could tell that a person was there. Just like that, as if in response to her realization, the person lifted his stealth jutsu and was standing there in jet-black clothes, but oddly enough, not ninja clothes. He looked like he was wearing a regular suit and tie and was about to stop by the office, except that his clothes were completely black, head-to-toe, and it was nighttime.

"Good Evening." the man said giving Tsunade good look at his face finally.

He had dark brown eyes and silver-colored hair, on his head was a bandanna that had a Konoha Ninja leaf hitae-ite. Plastered to his face was the craziest and sickest smile she had ever seen and if it wasn't for her years as a ninja, she would have been slightly frightened.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked in a slur.

"Of course. You're the Legendary Tsunade. The greatest medical ninjutsu expert known to man. You almost singlehandedly ended the Great Ninja Wars with your innovative breakthroughs in medical upkeep, and battle skills. I wouldn't dive into the lion's den without knowing what I was getting into." he stated very nonchalantly, "I also know you're no threat to me right now."

"Is that so?" she asked confidently, even though on the inside she knew she was about to hurl.

"Maybe normally I wouldn't stand a chance but, right now, an infant could handle you." he stated bluntly.

"Heh, yeah... so how did you slip me the poison?" she asked calmly.

"I waited for it to be put in your sixth bottle, so you would be too hammered to notice. You know, drinking is a bad vice." he stated now approaching her even closer.

"Dammit." Tsunade said to herself.

Normally this kind of thing would be no problem but the truth was, not only had she been poisoned, but she was extremely hammered. She normally might have even been able to remove the poison, but she was so drunk, it could take several seconds. Seconds that she didn't have. This guy may have been dodgy, but he was smart. He was ready to take her out quickly and efficiently and she wouldn't be able to stop him.

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Naruto was walking home from the restaurant having had his fill. He told Iruka-sensei that he would be home soon, but wanted to make a stop first. He wandered through the forest to his favorite spot, which during the day got enough sunlight that it had a nice warm atmosphere, and at the same time enough shade from the trees to keep cool. At night though, it wasn't quite as much to look at, but it was still a good place to hide some stuff.

Naruto sat down on a rock that he had marked a few weeks ago with a kunai knife and looked straight up, like he knew that he was supposed to. Then he quickly threw a shuriken straight up as it hit a beehive. Usually that would have been a very stupid thing to do but instead of bees coming out, there came only a small key. It dropped down into Naruto's hand which he then quickly stashed away in his pocket.

Then Naruto stood up and lifted the rock he had been previously sitting on, and underneath it was a covered hole about a foot deep. Naruto reached in and pulled out a small box about the size of a shoebox. He proceeded to open the box with the key and reached inside for his greatest possession.

His secret gumbo ramen recipe.

It was a feat never tested before! A recipe for ramen made with so many ingredients with such a thick broth, that it could be considered a gumbo, but still be a ramen! It had never been tried before and Naruto knew that it would take a huge amount of effort on his part. But the end result would be absolutely worth it.

"Alright, now let's get this home and-"

"Move it brat!" someone interrupted as he pushed Naruto out of his way.

"Whoa-oh!" Naruto exclaimed as he lost his balance and started rolling along from the momentum of the man's shove, but even worse was when he started to slow down, that's when he met a hill that kept him going down with no stop in sight, at this point, only praying that the landing would be a soft one.

Right into a ravine.

"Phbbthh!! Yuck!" Naruto exclaimed as he tried to get the moss-water taste out of his mouth.

Then at that moment the most unforeseen and possibly heart breaking thing had happened. Naruto looked down at his recipe, only to find that the ink on the parchment had begun to run and was now completely illegible. Naruto stared at it for a long time with a look of total despair. But then after a while her got up, shooting up like he sat on a nail.

Naruto was pissed.

"I'm gonna kill that guy!" Naruto said standing up and rushing in the direction that that rude man who had pushed him had gone.

For a while Naruto kept on running as fast as he could, letting his anger fuel him. What he wasn't aware of was as he kept running farther and farther, he soon ran onto a dirt path that was a part of the forest he had never been in before.

Then all of a sudden he heard voices.

"...but, right now, an infant could handle you." the same voice that had pushed him over said.

Naruto got closer and closer until he could finally see what was going on. He stood up on a tree and looked through the branches and saw the strangest and yet foreboding sight. There standing was the man who had pushed him who, strangely enough, was wearing some sort of fancy suit or something. Some people were weird. He was standing in front of blond woman sitting on a stump looking very dizzy but the first thing Naruto noticed was her huge rack!

"Yowza." Naruto said silently to himself.

Then at that moment, black-suit guy started to walk up to the woman very slowly at first as if he was going to embrace her. Then in a single second the tenseness in the air changed as the guy pulled out a kunai knife that was so sharp it seemed to reflect the moon in it's blade. At that moment Naruto knew that he had to react and didn't care about the consequences. Naruto jumped up into the air with a burst and rocketed up the tree grabbed onto the branch and swung for a moment building momentum until finally he flung himself head first right into black-suit guy's back.

"Ahh!" the guy shrieked as he dropped the kunai to the ground, Naruto flipping through the air and landing back on the ground behind the black-suit guy in a fighting stance.

"Take that you bastard!" Naruto exclaimed proudly standing up in triumph pointing at the man's back.

"Who the hell are you?" the guy said turning around to face his assailant.

"Uzumaki Naruto, hero, at your service!" Naruto stated loudly with a fierce grin on his face like he had seen superheroes do in the comics.

"Oh, just some brat." the guy said calmly.

"Hey!" Naruto stated indignantly, "I'll have you know I just graduated from ninja starter school you jerk! That means I can do cool ninja stuff that will blow your mind!" Naruto stated proudly looking at the thug with a smug grin.

"Oh, really?" the black-suit guy had started to chuckle to himself and it made Naruto start to worry a little bit, "Well, my name is Mizuki, or my nickname: Mizu-flash. I got that nickname-"

At that moment he disappeared from Naruto's vision and for a second Naruto was thoroughly confused on what had happened but it all became clear in a harsh bone-crunching second. Naruto felt his reappearance before he saw it. Mizuki, as he now knew him, smashed his fist into Naruto's face sending him flying a few feet into the tree that Naruto had previously swung from.

"-well, because of that. In case you didn't figure it out, I'm a ninja too." he stated cooly.

Naruto tried getting up but his back was sore from the bark and the wind was still knocked out of him. He finally was able to stand up, but only after some grunting and encouraging words on his own part.

"So, Mr. Hero, back off, alright?" Mizuki asked as he started to walk back toward the blond woman.

Naruto then desperately threw a few shurikens at Mizuki but he casually dodged them and then disappeared again out of Naruto's sight. He then reappeared behind Naruto slashing at his neck, this time with a kunai knife. Only this time around, Naruto was prepared, he tucked his legs in and rolled onto the ground and quickly threw two shurikens mid-roll behind him trying to hit Mizuki in the legs. Unfortunately Mizuki disappeared again and caught Naruto in mid-roll by the belt of his pants so Naruto was pretty much sitting on his head as Mizuki tossed him into a tree.

'That was a pretty awkward move.' Tsunade thought to herself watching this ninja-boy get beaten.

This kid popped out of nowhere and she was grateful to the him because he was providing her the necessary distraction she needed, but this was still a sad fight to watch. Mizuki was using a simple flash-jutsu that all ninja with some degree of experience knew, and this Naruto kid was being beaten. Bad. She just hoped the kid didn't get too roughed up trying to play hero.

"This is sad kid, you wanna give up and call it a day? If you do I might let you live..." Mizuki mocked in a sort of sing-song voice.

Two more shurikens flew out of the bushes and Mizuki caught both of them inches from his face.

"Guess not." Mizuki said to himself.

"Take this!" Naruto declared flying over Mizuki head going down for an axe-kick.

That Mizuki caught.

"Kid, you suck." Mizuki said calmly as he pulled Naruto down to eye-level, kneed him in the stomach, and then dropped him softly to the ground like a bag of marbles, only the bag was coughing and hacking up blood at this point.

"You know what I've decided?" Mizuki asked looking down at Naruto's crumpled form, "I'm not feeling so merciful anymore so I've decided to kill you. How's that sound brat? At least that'll mean you'll look heroic right? I mean, I think I'm being pretty nice here." Mizuki taunted as he started to calmly kick Naruto's crumpled form.

'God, I'm such a loser.' Naruto thought to himself.

This was like it was all the time. Naruto would sit around and take crap from punks and they would beat on him. When he stood up for himself, people would just beat him down and Naruto would just take it like a frightened little victim. His life had always gone like this. Why did it always have to be this way? If Naruto didn't do something soon, he was gonna die!

'This is a bunch of crap! That's it, I'm doing that jutsu!' Naruto declared to himself, as another kick came to him, he caught Mizuki's foot in his hand and pushed himself off of it and slid away from Mizuki and towards the blond woman.

"Hey, lady, " Naruto said as he started to get up, "I don't know who you are or what's going on. But I promise this guy isn't gonna touch you." Naruto said horsely as he put his hands together to form the ram seal.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!" Naruto screamed as hard as he could.

All of a sudden the forest was filled with tens of twenties of Narutos all standing defiantly and looking with smug grins at Mizuki. Some were hanging from the trees while others were simply crouching on the ground and some were even standing on other clones shoulders. It was a real party.

"SO WHAT DO YOU SAY NOW?" the crowd of Narutos asked in unison.

Mizuki was stunned by the number of Shadow Clones this little brat was able to make. Even accomplished Jonins could only make six maybe seven Shadow clones before they started going into chakra depletion. This kid though had made over twenty and looked like he hadn't even broken a sweat. It was pretty impressive and surprising.

But so was he.

Suddenly Mizuki disappeared again and then all of a sudden a cloud of clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto realized what was going on and tried to organize the clones to make a counter-attack but it was to no avail. Anytime some of them tried to move they would just get hit by the moving flash that was Mizuki until the only one standing in the forest was a lone Naruto. Mizuki had reappeared once more, and stomped on Naruto's back sending Naruto careening to the ground.

'Crap' Tsunade thought to herself.

So far the kid was pretty pathetic to watch and Tsunade had begun to worry he was gonna get killed, but then he pulled out those shadow clones and she was truly impressed. Now though, it was obvious that even though he had mastered the jutsu itself he hadn't learned to control it very well, as Mizuki had taken all the clones out in less than a minute. All the kid did really was waste a bunch of chakra. Still, that much chakra in one kid was impressive. Too impressive. Who was this kid? Uzumaki? Where had she heard that name before?

Then it hit her!

"Eat some dirt kid. I hear it's good for dregs." Mizuki said smugly as Naruto was now lying face first in the ground.

Mizuki was now done playing with the kid. He pulled out his kunai knife and started twirl it around on his finger by the loop on the end. He soon caught it and held it over Naruto's head for a second until he finally had it crash down at lightning-quick speed. The knife smashed into Naruto's skull with a sickening scrape as it went against bone.

And then disappeared.

"WHAT?!" Mizuki exclaimed in surprise.

At that moment two hands broke out of the ground and reached up to grab onto Mizuki's legs before he could run away. Then flying out of the trees like bullets were two Narutos with there fists flying and headed straight for Mizuki. Their fists crashed into Mizuki's face, then in a feat of pure athleticism finished with a kick to his gut before his head caught any momentum from the punch. As they pushed off his stomach and flew away with a back-flip and landed onto the ground with a slide and Mizuki with a flying crash into a rock.

"Who's the punk now?" Naruto said as his clone dispersed, "You're only advantage was speed, once I caught you with my clone I hid under ground, you were pretty weak man." Naruto declared loudly with a pant as his other clone dug itself out of the hole and then dispersed.

"Not bad kid." Tsunade said now having removed the poison from her system.

"You okay lady?" Naruto asked with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks to you kid." Tsunade said giving Naruto a pat on the head and started to walk away.

"Wait, that's it? Just a 'thanks kid'?" Naruto asked indignantly but she had already disappeared from his view.

'Man, what a weird night.' Naruto thought looking at Mizuki's unconscious form.

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"Alright, next on the list, Uchiha Sasuke. Exemplary marks and good teacher recommendations. Not only that but since he's of that legendary clan, it would be unconscionable to think otherwise. All Agreed?"

"Aye."

"All opposed?"

"..."

"Alright then, Uchiha Sasuke, welcome to Konoha Boarding School." and with that said the man pulled out his eight-inch "accepted" stamp over the application form.

Tsunade hated this part of the year. After a long and relaxing summer of binge-drinking and sleeping in until noon she had to go back to work. She was calmly sipping tea in her room when Shizune came in and demanded that she get to work on the application forms that the school board members had already begun to work on weeks ago. When she got there they had already started and frankly she didn't care. Just more brats for her school.

"Last application here." Tool Number Four as Tsunade liked to call him said.

"Oh, was that an application? I thought it was a joke." Tool Number Six said chuckling at her own joke.

The Eight Board members were some of the most well-known ninjas in the Fire Country having either been noted for amazing feats in their careers or being recommended by one of those Legendary Ninjas. They were really just a bunch of old farts and their apprentices who were so pretentious and pompous Tsunade rarely opened her eyes to look at them. Despite that, they did at least recognize talents and that's why they were in charge of admissions. Of course, sometimes "talent" got confused with fame. That tended to tick her off a little.

"Yes, well, it's only fair that we at least glance at it," said Tool Four again, "Alright, Uzumaki Naruto: 2.0 grade average, 477 detentions, from six different schools, no teacher recommendations but definitely a few complaints, and lastly no essay portion to his application. Oh, and only extra-curricular activity: Ramen sampling Club, which consisted of three members, two of which dropped out after the first week. Wow, not only should this boy not be accepted but I think he could find a better career as a doorstop than a ninja." the Tool joked and of course everyone laughed like it was the most hilarious thing they had ever heard.

Tsunade did have to agree on this one though. What was this kid thinking? Everyone knew that Konoha Boarding School only accepted the best of the best and this kid didn't even sound like he was the bottom of the barrel. Was he really the kid she met in the forest? He sounded like he was even lower than that. If the kid could got any compliment from reading his record though it was bravery. Anyone who could send in an application that crappy had to be brave as hell. That or pretty dumb.

Tsunade glanced at the picture opening her eyes during the meeting for the first time in years and saw the grinning, boisterous, and and blond face she had seen months ago. So that kid had applied to her school, huh? Interesting.

"All right, all those who think we should just toss this application say 'Aye.'"

"Aye."

"All opposed?""

"Nay."

With that all of the heads in the room turned to look at Tsunade. For a moment some of them had even forgotten that Tsunade attended these meetings, seeing as she never said anything in them ever. This was practically historic that she took an opinion about one of the students.

"Excuse me? Tsunade-sama?" Tool Four asked.

"I say, we give this kid a shot." Tsuande said smugly, she didn't know why she felt so smug but she did.

"Tsunade-sama, I implore you, this boy has not done the work or have the standing to even look at our Academy's legendary doors. Why would you possibly want to-"

"This kid looks promising to me. His record may not be the best but-"

"His record is terrible!" Tool Number Six interrupted.

"BUT," Tsunade started again stiffly, "sometimes the things that make a good ninja aren't things you can find on a record. Besides, I like ramen too. He may be fun to have here." Tsunade stated simply, knowing that the real reason she was nominating this kid was because he was the Yondaime's legacy and because of how, when seeing him in the forest and looking at his picture now, he sort of reminded her of-

"Tsunade-sama, I implore you, you can't-"

"Are you questioning my judgment? Ebisu?" she asked in her most threatening voice possible.

"... of course not Tsunade-sama." he stated calmly bowing his head, which was actually something to watch because he was sitting down and almost slammed his head down on the table as if he was trying to express his frustration at this admission.

Maybe he was.

"Alright, then, if no one objects. Uzumaki Naruto, welcome to Konoha Boarding School." Tsuande said, and without waiting for any other opinions quickly snatched Ebisu's ungodly stamp and slammed it down on the record.

'Let's see what you've got kid. Show me whether what you did in the forest that night was skill or just luck.' Tsunade said thinking to herself looking at Naruto's grinning picture as he made the "victory" sign in his kabuki paint, almost as if in the picture he was celebrating his acceptance.

Naruto got out of bed that morning as he usually did: by falling out when his alarm went off. He quickly threw the alarm against the wall to shut it up and when it beeped it's last beep of life he walked out of his room. He headed down stairs where Iruka-sensei was asleep on the couch, because he came in so late last night from reading applications. Naruto smiled for a second and then went outside to pick up the mail. He grabbed the newspaper and the his issue of "Ramen Flavor Monthly" and a few bills for the house and-

"WHOA!!!! IRUKA-SENSEI!!!!!!!!!!"

**A/N: **Read and review please! Also suggestions are nice.


	3. The New School: Welcome to Hell, Naruto!

**A/N: GEEEEZ! After practically two years, I finally update. Some of you must think I suck. Well.... I do. Don't worry though, I figured out the problem; I was making my chpaters too long. This one is almost 9,000 words and originally was only half done! Now I know my limitations and will be able to produce chapters efficiently and quickly. Also, realize that this was mostly written two years ago and my writing skills have advanced exponentially since then. So, consider this the appetizer before the juicy main coarse of the next chapter! Read on....**

"I'll be back in a while Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted as he left the house.

It was in the evening and the sky wasn't quite dark yet, but it wasn't light either. The sky had that calm navy blue color about it that seemed to stretch across the earth like some sort of warm blanket. This was one of Naruto's favorite times of day. During the day there were too many people he didn't like out, but at night, the town was too quiet, so this was the time he could go out and really enjoy himself without any scornful looks or bumping into anything.

After Naruto had gotten his acceptance letter he couldn't believe it at first. His life was finally, finally, FINALLY, going his way. He had wanted this so bad and it actually came true! Not to say that Naruto had any doubts or anything like that. It was just that in the past, Naruto had become accustomed to disappointments and failures that for something to finally go his way was just the tops. And that didn't even come close to Iruka-sensei's reaction when he read the letter.

Naruto had never heard so many cheers come out of such a grinning idiot.

Still Naruto was glad when Iruka-sensei didn't try to bring down his mood by telling him that it would be hard work, or "that all of the hard stuff started now", or something like, "this meant more was expected of him as a ninja." He just smiled at Naruto and gave him a big hug that must have lasted twenty minutes before Naruto could get out of his grip. Afterwards, Naruto and Iruka-sensei went out on the town and partied in practically every restaurant that could/would take them. Naruto must have had so much ramen that, the next day, he actually didn't want any for once. "That was a lot of ramen" was the understatement of the century that someone could say.

Now though, Naruto was out on the town of Tane to celebrate a little more quietly. Naruto had gotten 50 ryou as a gift from Iruka-sensei and he wanted to spend it as fast as possible. Nothing worse than having cash to load you down he figured. He needed to get rid of that cash fast.

"Heh, heh," Naruto chuckled to himself.

So here he was, in the middle of the town square with tons of booths all around him just brimming with cool and useless trinkets that Naruto could blow his money on. Looking at the stands on the right he saw a bunch of different food stands with things like: fried squid, odango, candy, ice-cream, and chicken-heads. Then on the left he saw games and toys and souvenirs that people would buy for their kids or if they were on a trip or something and wanted the souvenir to remember their stay.

Naruto knew he probably wanted to get something that would last a while because he figured that he wanted something that could last his stay at his new school. Konoha Boarding School. It was a boarding school, (like the name said) and thus he would need something to remind him of home.

He started looking around some more when he spotted a key chain stand. There were little key chains of such things as dogs, frogs, cats, snakes, and other creatures that he didn't know of. There were also key chains of things that were just symbols and didn't really represent anything. There was one that simply looked like an ink-drop ("too dark"), one of a crossing "S" like shape in red ("too comic-book"), and another that looked like a tic-tac-toe board ("too simple").

One though, really caught his attention. It was not really any color, but if you had to pick one it would be blue. It was sort of like a marble but the shape and color seemed too translucent. It didn't look real in a way. He took it off the shelf and held it up to the sun to look at it. That's when he realized it!

"It's a swirl..." Naruto whispered to himself.

Indeed, it was a swirl that was shaped three-dimensionally so it was in a sort of sphere shape. It looked so mesmerizing and whimsical. Naruto couldn't really recall what made it so appealing but suddenly that key chain seemed extremely important. It was a representation of Naruto's achievement of getting into Konoha Boarding School. Naruto had to buy it all of a sudden. So a few minutes later, Naruto walked away with 20 ryou gone and the key chain deep in his pocket where he could keep it safe.

After that, Naruto just wandered around town a little more trying to enjoy the last scant minutes of this twilight time before it got too dark. Soon though he spotted some kids coming out of a shop and they were laughing their heads off. At first Naruto couldn't recognize them, but after a moment it popped into his head and Naruto turned away as fast as he could to go in the other direction. He just hoped above all else that they didn't notice Naruto as he walked away.

'Please don't, please don't, please don't,' he kept thinking to himself, 'please don't, please-'

"Hey look, it's Naruto!"

Damn.

Naruto knew that the best thing to do was freeze because if he tried to run, he would probably just make it worse. So Naruto stood there, waiting for the moment where they would come up and start terrorizing him like they always did.

"Hey loser," one of them said coming up closer now.

At that, Naruto turned around to face them. They were the three kids who had beaten up Naruto earlier that summer. Their names were ingrained in his mind as they were his regular tormentors when they went to school together. It was like they didn't have anything better to do than ruin Naruto's life.

"Hey Ryo, Takame, Ai," Naruto mumbled to them in an unenthusiastic greeting.

"If it isn't our favorite punching bag! How's your summer been loser?" Takame asked with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Yeah, we haven't seen you since, umm, when was it?" Ryo asked pretending to think to himself.

"Since we beat his ass in June." Ai said calmly.

"Oh, yeah!" Ryo exclaimed proudly like he had just remembered something really good that happened to him. In a way, for him, it probably was. It's always nice when you put someone else under your heel. Yeah, soooo fun.

'Jackasses' Naruto thought to himself.

"So, tell us Naruto, what school took a loser like you in this fall?" Ryo asked punching Naruto in the shoulder a little too hard.

At this Naruto suddenly saw his glimmer of hope in all of this. If there was anything that Naruto could brag about, that he could one-up these jackasses with, it would be where he was going to school for the next three years. This was something that Naruto could use to finally get back at them.

They were just lucky that Naruto was the modest type.

"Well, I'd really rather not talk about that kind of thing with you guys but-"

"Well I got into the Fire Country Prep School for Boys. It's one of the top ranking fifteen schools in all of the Fire Country. Ai got into the Lotus High School which is part of the top ten best schools in the country, and Ryo got into Fire Country Prep with me." Takame explained with a smug grin on his face, all the while taking a really conceited tone of voice that just made what Naruto was going to say next all the more sweeter.

"Wow, so I guess you guys don't get any girls at your school. That must be like, a dream come true for you guys. Finally going to show your true feelings for each other huh?" Naruto questioned mockingly all the while keeping his eye contact away from theirs.

"Alright then loser, what school did you get into?" Ryo asked now with a dark tinge of anger in his voice rather than the smug, conceited, voice he had from before. Apparently Naruto's comment didn't go over with him so well.

"Me? Oh, I didn't really get into anywhere special I guess. Just a little old school you might have heard of a few times called..." at that Naruto stopped for dramatic effect and turned to make eye contact with the three stooges, "...Konoha Boarding School."

At that moment the night air suddenly whistled with an unexplained ominous wind. No one moved and it was as if the whole world kept going, and those four teens were frozen into their own universe. Naruto stood there waiting for their reactions while Ryo, Ai, and Takame were completely frozen as if they were still waiting for Naruto to answer their question. After a while though, their faces changed and they started to look at Naruto with faces that he had never seen before.

They looked a little afraid.

"Liar," Ai said simply.

With that though, the other two suddenly took a breath of relief and started to laugh. After a minute all three of them were laughing so hard it was practically scratching at Naruto's brain. He wanted so badly to pop those guys one and show them whose boss.

"It's true!" Naruto shouted indignantly.

"Please, a loser like you could probably only get into ninja secondary school or something," Ryo said with a laugh.

"Even a secondary school couldn't take a guy like Naruto," Ai said with a chuckle.

At that Naruto couldn't take it anymore. Naruto was going to run up to those three jerks and knock some sense into their over-inflated heads. He was going to get his revenge for all of the torment they gave him. It was time for a new Naruto to take charge!

That's when Naruto was hit with a realization: he was above this. Naruto had just gotten accepted into one of the best, no, hell, the best school in the entire Fire Country. He didn't need anything to make himself feel better or validate his worth. He had already proved it. Even if these guys didn't believe him, all that mattered was that it was true and he knew it. He was better than them, plain and simple.

With that Naruto turned to walk away.

"Hey where are you going loser?" Ryo asked loudly.

Naruto didn't even turn around though. All he did was keep on walking without any remorse or thought of looking back at the people he once considered to be his goal. For so long he wanted them to accept him and stop making fun of him. Naruto had tried so hard to get to their level that he never realized that he was already above their level. So as he walked away, all he gave them was a small wave with two fingers and a single thought.

'I wonder how hot the girls are going to be?'

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The next day Naruto wasn't able to see Iruka-sensei because he had to go to the opening ceremony for his school but Naruto was okay with that. He'd been alone for a long time and he had become kind of independent. He'd forgotten how it felt a little bit, but that loneliness was still there. It did feel bad, but in a way it also made him stronger, more independent.

Despite that though, Naruto could not find his damn train!

Naruto was on the 32nd platform and just couldn't find which one was his train. His ticket said he needed to get on board by 4:00 and it was currently 3:52 and Naruto was completely lost. It would be a total crap-job if Naruto missed his first day of school just because he couldn't find a freakin' damn train!

"Hey, buddy; you know where I can find my train?" Naruto asked handing his ticket to someone who looked like he worked there.

"Oh, yeah. You see that kid over there?" the man asked pointing to a kid with dark hair tied up into a ponytail.

"Uh, yeah."

"I just told him how to get on the train, follow him and you should be good."

"Thanks dude."

With that Naruto started going after the dark-haired kid making sure that he didn't lose a step. The kid was pretty far ahead though so he was slightly worried he would lose him in the crowd, but after a while he finally caught up to the kid and saw him getting on a train.

"Phew!" Naruto sighed to himself loudly checking his watch. It read 3:58, so he knew that he really cut it close. Looked like someone was watching out for him though because he wasn't going to miss the train and everything would be just fine.

"........................... nope, nothing."

As soon as that thought had crossed Naruto's mind he was sure that something bad would happen like in the stories, but he was perfectly fine. So with that thought he got onto the train.

It was pretty crowded with, what Naruto could only assume were the other students he would meet at the school. There were some guys, some girls, and a whole lot of chakra. He could feel that every one of these other passengers were pretty strong with high chakra levels and just sheer auras of strength. If you wanted intimidating, it was on that train.

Soon though, Naruto was able to find a car to himself at the back of the train with a broken door, but otherwise it was in a pretty good condition. Naruto hopped in and quickly stashed all of his bags in an overhead compartment along with all of his ninja gear. Once he was all settled in, Naruto finally got the chance to relax. It was supposed to be a two hour train ride up the mountain, and Naruto had time to kill, so he planned on just lying back and enjoying the solitude.

"Yo."

Damn it.

Naruto snapped awake to see that the train had been moving for a while. He must have been out for a few minutes because his clothes were crumpled from lying on them weird. Also he felt his underwear riding up the way that it did whenever he slept on something besides a bed. Last of course to finish it all up was the sleep crease he had on his face with the small trail of drool on his chin. It was at that moment he looked up to see who woke him.

"I said, 'Yo'," the kid that Naruto followed to the train before said. This time Naruto got a good look at his face though. He had a sort of tired look on his face that seemed like he wasn't getting enough sleep with a stupid lop-sided look. Next to him though was another kid who was probably a few inches taller but several inches wider. He had a bag of chips in his hand with a blue shirt with the kanji for "food" on it. He seemed to have a round face, but it was hard to tell because he was eating so fast you could only see his eyes.

"Ummm... hey," Naruto said hesitantly now sitting up from his laying down position from his previous nap. He came up slowly but after a while got a better look at them to see that they still had all of their bags. After of a moment of contemplation Naruto finally decided what to do.

"You guys want to sit down?" Naruto asked now more chipper.

"Thanks," they said in unison.

What happened next was so extraordinarily quick that Naruto almost missed it. They got up and quickly stacked all of their things into the overhead compartments with his, and then stuffed the rest into compartments under the chairs that Naruto hadn't even noticed. They then zoomed into the two open seats across from Naruto and set up camp. The dark-haired guy splayed himself across the arms of the chair with his head upside down and looking out the window. The chubby guy with the brown hair sat down in a pretty normal way except of course for the fact that he was then munching on the bag of chips from before with absolute abandon. Didn't that bag ever run out of chips?

For a while they were all just sitting in the car completely silent and staring at each other awkwardly and Naruto started to wonder if they were doing it on purpose. After an even longer pause though Naruto finally took the initiative and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Well, uh, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you," Naruto said as politely as he could before he started to snap. Without any reaction after a while he started to get a little pissed at the duo.

"HEY!"

"Mendokuse...." was all the dark-haired guy could say and the other one just kept on with his damn munching!

"Alright, alright, let's get on with it I guess. My name is Nara Shikamaru. My friend with his face in the bag is Akimichi Choji. Is there anything else you want to know or can I go back to looking at the clouds?" Shikamaru, as Naruto now knew him, replied with such a bored voice you would have thought the guy was dead or something. Meanwhile he never took his eyes away from the window. Also Choji never even looked up when his name was mentioned. Still eating if you couldn't guess.

Naruto had a lot of things he wanted to ask in that moment. Mostly he wanted to ask because he knew he was probably only getting a small window of opportunity to talk with these guys before they would start tuning him out so Naruto wanted to know things about them now while he could. Normally he would have asked if they liked ramen, or had hobbies or something, but after meeting them he really only had one question.

"How did you guys get in this school?"

It was if a bomb had gotten dropped in the middle of the room. Both of them looked over at Naruto in the same instance and stopped what they were doing. Shikamaru got up from his laying down position and sat up looking Naruto in the eye and Choji put his bag down to do the same.

"It's.... our dads." Shikamaru said after a long pause.

"Huh?"

"Our dads were part of a legendary trio called the Ino-Shika-Cho trio," Choji said, it being the first time he had ever spoken, Naruto was surprised for a second and wasn't sure who said it. Once he saw it was Choji though, he was surprised it didn't come out more like an oink. His voice was much gruffer than Naruto's and Shikamaru's. Maybe that wasn't all fat on his form.

"There's sort of this.... growing expectation that we do really well too. Man, this is really troublesome...." Shikamaru said turning his head to look out the window again, "I would much rather just go to some small ninja school close to home and watch the clouds. Now I'm gonna have to do work and stuff." Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"Not only that but we're supposed to look for some Ino guy who's supposed to complete our trio," Choji said starting to go for the bag again, "Luckily, Shikamaru and I already knew each other from junior high, but now we gotta find this other guy too or our dads will think we're betraying tradition or something." Choji said with a groan and then went back to munching.

Naruto couldn't believe it. This Shikamaru guy must have been the laziest guy that Naruto had ever met in his life. He was actually upset that he had to go to this prestigious school. He was upset! That made Naruto want to laugh, cry, and yell all at the same time.

Still though, it got Naruto thinking. These guys had fathers who were ninjas and now they themselves were ninjas. Naruto had heard of clans and such but they usually only pertained to Kekkei Genkais and such. Would there be more people at this school that were part of famous clans? Maybe ninjas who had been trained since they were kids. Or even more amazing, these kids didn't have to develop techniques, just learn them from the family. Naruto didn't really think that was fair.

The year at this school suddenly seemed more interesting. If this was the best school in the country, Naruto was sure to meet a bunch of famous people and famous techniques that were probably hundreds of years old. Not only that but since Naruto didn't have a family jutsu or anything, maybe, the techniques he would learn and showed off to everyone would officially become legends as they dropped down the grapevines of families and clans. Oh yeah, this was gonna be sweet. Then a thought hit him.

'If Shikamaru is a lazy ass, and Choji is a fat ass, then I wonder what kind of ass this Ino guy is?'

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"Nice ass!"

"Lookin' good Ino!"

"Thank you boys." the blond girl said curtly with a smile on her face.

Yamanaka Ino had recently gotten into Konoha Boarding School after years of rigorous work at her starter ninja school. She had gotten top marks in all her classes, especially her kunoichi studies, and rocked the classrooms with her radical telepathic capabilities. She didn't want to brag and say that she was perfect but why argue with it. She had looks, brains, beautiful tresses of long hair, a personality to kill for and-

"Too short."

"What?" Ino asked her pink-haired friend.

"Your skirt is too short. That's why you got those comments. Ino, if your dad saw you in that he would explode." Sakura said with a giggle.

Haruno Sakura was Ino's best friend and worst rival. The two had known each other for years and Ino loved Sakura to death, but she could kill the girl. Ino got top marks in her classes but Sakura was the top marker. Not only that, but Sakura got asked by guys left and right, while Ino stood in her dust. She hated to admit it, but Sakura was the one person in the world who could deflate Ino's head without even trying.

"So? The only way this skirt could look good is if I look good in it, so the comments still count!" she replied haughtily.

"Ino, that thing looks like you wore it in kindergarten." Sakura returned calmly.

"That's just a blatant exaggeration!" Ino exploded.

At that moment Sakura disappeared and Ino was standing in the hallway corridor of the train by herself with no one there. She looked around for her friend and where she could have gone because she knew if she didn't stay aware, she'd regret it. After a moment though all Ino saw was dry paint and peeling wood and this was getting annoying. In that moment she just wanted to leave this deserted hallway when she realized that her friend must have been using her specialty jutsu: genjutsu.

Too little too late though as suddenly Ino heard a harsh rip and a tug on her skirt that startled her. She immediately went to damage control to straighten her skirt out and see what damage had befallen it. Once she was sure it was fine she turned to yell at Sakura when she paused to see her holding a small tag reading in colorful letters: "The Preschool Kunoichi collection."

"Even smaller than I thought." Sakura stated smugly.

"Ah, shut up." Ino said as she snatched the tag from Sakura and started to stomp away to their car.

When Ino opened the door though she was surprised to see, not normal empty seats with Sakura's baggage piled on the left and Ino's on the right, but a girl she had never met before stuffing her bags under the seats. The girl looked sort of short with a very stylish black on blue ninja skirt and green blouse that matched with her hair that was of the same shocking color. After a moment of being flabbergasted though, the girl turned around and looked at Ino with a cold look.

"Uhh... hey." Ino said startled at the girl's dark look.

Sakura came in a second later right next to Ino to see who was in their car. In that second where Ino turned to watch Sakura approach, and the one second she wasn't looking at the green-haired girl something must have happened because when she looked back, the girl had the loveliest look on her face that Ino had ever seen. She was a completely different person.

"Is this your car?" the girl asked them with a sweet voice.

"Yeah, but its fine if you want to sit here too." Sakura stated off-handedly as she entered into the car to sit across from the newcomer.

Ino snapped out of her trance and wandered into the car as well to sit next to this new girl who was smiling so nicely at them. She seemed to be a fine person, but that look Ino got when she entered the car was still gripping at the back of her mind.

"My name is Doku Yowaku. But you can just call me Yui for short. Nice to meet you." She said in a sweet tone that seemed to reach in to the back of your brain and make you feel sort of serene in an odd, forced way.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, and that girl next to you is Yamanaka Ino."

At that Sakura and Yui, as they now knew her, started chatting up a storm that Ino didn't really want to pay attention to as it was only about grades and their former schools. Ino was a good student, but Sakura was a nerd. Ino did well, but Sakura liked school. She could be really boring sometimes.

Until the oddest question popped up that made Ino's interest explode back into the conversation.

"So seen any hot guys yet?"

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Naruto got off the train and took a deep breath of fresh air. This was what freedom smelled like to him. Here he would not only be able to explore his abilities and become stronger, but he was free from Iruka-sensei. It wasn't that he didn't love him or anything, but Iruka-sensei was such a task-master sometimes. Now though, Naruto had true freedom to do whatever the hell he wanted to do. He could run around campus like an idiot, or pants some people, or flip a couple of skirts, and no one would yell at him. At least until the school year started.

Then he saw the campus and was taken aback. The campus was literally fields and fields of endless of grass. Nothing but grass and flowers everywhere in the distance, and birds and animals living unfettered and away from society. It was so beautiful and... country-like. This was going to be a truly awesome year at Konoha Boarding School.

"Man this place sucks," Shikamaru said as he exited from the train behind Naruto, and Choji was following close behind. He looked very bored and unimpressed with the campus, but he looked like that all the time. What did it take to get this guy excited about stuff?

"Well, I guess we should get registered. Come on Choji, let's get it out of the way while we can do it without a line," Shikamaru said slinging his bag over his shoulder, and walking lazily off to the distance. Choji closely followed, munching on a candy bar along the way behind him. This site was so familiar to Naruto now that it was scary. Then he realized something.

"Wait! What do you mean registering?" he asked Shikamaru as he started fleeting away at a slug's pace.

"All arriving students have to register with the front desk at the school, so the school knows you got here and all. They also gotta rank you and give you your schedules and room assignments. Man you really know nothing about schools like this, do you?" Shikamaru said with an incredulous sigh. He and Choji were soon gone, and Naruto could only assume they were heading to the school that was off so far in the distance, that Naruto couldn't see it. This campus must be huge!

Naruto didn't have time for stuff like that though. He could register any time if he wanted to, but having free-for-all fun would come so rarely once he had to follow campus regulations. If he was gonna cause some mayhem and destruction, he would have to do it now. Not only that, but he wanted to explore a little. This campus was going to have a lot to offer, so he might as well see what he could drag up. Naruto grabbed his stuff, and set off.

Once he started walking around, Naruto got a better look at the campus. There were wide fields of grass and flowers, but then they became training fields for shuriken throwing, kunai dummies, and Punching bags. There were also trees in the distance, and a large building next to the forest, which he could only assume was the school. When he jumped up, he could see slightly past the forest, a town. That must have been the main capital of Konoha. He had never seen the big city before, but it looked promising.

Walking around for a while, he noticed he was only getting closer and closer to the school, so he changed directions and walked against the wind. It felt so relaxing and nice as it blew against his face. Naruto let it ruffle his hair a little bit, and he took a pinwheel out of his bag and attached it to a headband he tied around his head. He could only grin at how cool he must have looked right then.

"Oh my God. What a dork!"

When Naruto heard that he got as pissed as humanly possible. He turned around and faced to where he heard the voice come from and saw three figures. They were all girls, one with blond hair, one with dark green hair, and one with pink hair. The first two were pretty hot, but the pink-haired one was so incredibly pretty! He suddenly forgot his anger and ran up to them as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Hey, I'm Uzumaki Naruto and you ladies are?" he said deepening his voice and holding his hand out all cool-like. Naruto saw that the blond one was just sort of looking at him with a questioning look, but the pink-haired one had a sort of small smile on her face. The green-haired one was not impressed though.

"Oh my God. You are such a pathetic dork. You actually think a gruffy little boy like you, can talk to beautiful women like us?" the green-haired girl said in a huff. She was actually very pretty though when Naruto got a good look at her, but he still preferred the pink-haired girl. Not only that, but this girl was sounding like a real bitch.

"Hey, I'm pretty awesome! I got plenty of girls chasing me, and I've got the skills of a future Hokage!" Naruto said defiantly. The blond and pink-hair looked sort of like they were giggling, but the green-haired girl had an absolutely evil look on her face.

"You! Ha! You're not even fit to lick our feet. Right Sakura?" she asked turning to Sakura.

"Uh... right, I guess," she said with a sort of half-nod.

"So your name is Sakura? Nice to meet you Sakura!" he said walking up to Sakura, but the pinwheel started to spin against the sudden wind, and Naruto grabbed at it to try and take it out of his headband, and scratched the living daylights out of his head.

"Uh... right," she said sort of half-heartedly.

"Please, you little squirt, don't try and talk to us," the green-haired bitch chimed in again, pushing Naruto away from Sakura with an unbelievably hard push. "There's no way she could be interested in a short, gruffy, pathetic little dork like you. She would go more for a guy- a guy like that! Yowza!" she said with a sudden change in her pitch from snideness to excitement.

Naruto could only think: Who says "Yowza"?

The green-haired bitch was pointing at a boy a few yards away with a black t-shirt on and white cargo pants. On the back of the t-shirt was some sort of a fan or symbol or something that Naruto didn't recognize. What really caught Naruto's attention though, was the dark scowl on his face. What was stuck up his butt?

"Kami! That guy is gorgeous!" the blond said suddenly spotting the guy. "He's so hot!"

"And cool," Sakura said with a sort of long sigh, that made Naruto want to sink into a hole. Or punch that dark-haired guy in the stomach. Or both.

"Well, what are we waiting for ladies? As they say: First one there gets the worm! If you know what I mean!" the green-haired one said with a suggestive glint in her tone. She suddenly disappeared and was heading over to the guy at lightning like speeds. Sakura and the blond were right behind her, and when the dark-haired guy started walking away, they just kept on following him. Now Naruto was really pissed.

"Aw, who the heck?" he asked himself quietly. Here he was, about to ask out probably the prettiest girl he had ever known or saw, and she zooms off after some pretty-boy. Naruto knew he would have a problem getting past her bitch of a friend, but now he had competition to deal with as well? Man that was a real bummer for him.

"Uchiha Sasuke," a voice said quietly.

Naruto gasped in surprise and swiftly turned around to see who had said that. Suddenly, he was faced with the off-white color of an over-sized sweater that someone was wearing. When he looked up a little, he saw that the shirt was worn by a really tall guy with shades. Not only did the shades make him look a little creepy, but being this close to him, Naruto could have sworn he could hear strange noises that made his skin crawl.

"Whoa! Who are you?" Naruto asked jumping back and facing the kid in a fighting position.

"Aburame Shino. That kid you just saw was Uchiha Sasuke," Shino said simply pointing off to the distance to the spot where Sasuke had been previously standing. He stood in a very slanted way, and barely lifted his hand to point in the distance giving him a very laid-back sort of posture. It made him look kind of cool, in a creepy way.

"U-Uchiha Sasuke? You know him?" Naruto asked now falling back into a slightly calmer position but only slightly. This guy still creeped him out to no ends...

"I know of him. Uchiha Sasuke, 16 years old. The last of his clan after a mysterious assailant killed his entire family at age 6. His skills are supposed to be the pride of the Uchiha clan, and his know-how of jutsu and chakra-manipulation is far beyond any ninja of his age. The impressive part though is that his strength is completely self-gained. He was never trained by any family members, and he never got one-on-one training from any master. All of his skill and power is his own," Shino said as if he was listing off all of Sasuke's attributes and strengths off of a trading card or something. Nonetheless, this Uchiha kid sounded tough.

And lonely.

"So, he's all alone?" Naruto asked the strange boy who had approached him.

"Hai," he answered simply, and started to walk away or sort of glide away as Naruto could barely see any movement from his feet. When it came to weird guys, he was definitely at the top of the list. Aburame Shino. It would probably be best if he kept an eye on that guy.

Still, hearing that that Sasuke guy was alone without anybody had a strange affect on Naruto's mood. Maybe if he was alone and Naruto was alone, they could be friends. Sometimes, Naruto thought it was unbearable to have no one, but if Sasuke was alone, then they were alike right? He should try to catch up to that guy.

Naruto started to go the same direction that the girls went off to, and predictably, became lost. He knew that Sasuke must have gone into this direction somewhere, but he couldn't seem to find him. When Naruto looked around, all he could see were lush fields of green and color.

That's when he spotted a wall, that ended all the fields of green, and it wasn't a man-made wall it was a wall to a cliff or something. Naruto figured, that would probably be a good place to start, so he headed over. When he got closer though, he saw that he had been wrong from before. It wasn't just a wall that he was staring at. There right in the middle, was huge waterfall the likes of which he had never seen. The waterfall fell into a pool of water at the bottom that created a sort of river that ran down towards Naruto's direction. How could he have not noticed that before?

Staring at it for a few moments in awe before snapping out of it, Naruto saw a dark-haired figure standing on a bride that faced the river, but arched over the river it created. He supposed it was for people who needed to cross the river or get a good view of the waterfall. The dark-haired figure though, was staring down from the bridge at the water standing near the edge. Really close actually. That person must have been fearless.

"Oi! You! Got a second?!" Naruto asked, running up to the bridge and hoping the dark-haired person would turn around. When they did though, he realized it was a girl.

"Hey, you seen a dark-haired guy near here, with a dark t-shirt and a mean look on his face?" Naruto asked the girl, after he got to the bridge out of breath. He couldn't help but notice that the girl was really surprised by his presence as she was shaking and sweating all of a sudden.

"Wha? Uh, n-no," she said quietly and turning away from Naruto's gaze.

"Really? Damn, I was really hoping that I would be able to find that guy here. Aw well, no harm on your part, I'll just keep looking," Naruto said with a nod, more to himself than to the girl, before he gave a quick look around, as if Sasuke might be hiding or something.

"Yes, well, a lot of people are registering right now, I don't know if he might be there or not, I mean I don't know your friend, and I certainly don't know you, but if it was me and I was to do something- well obviously I'd be here because that's where I am, but I mean to say if I was your friend- not that I'm saying we have to be friends, I wasn't implying anything like that, no, no- but that doesn't mean we shouldn't- I mean..." and from there the girl just muttered on and on as she got quieter and quieter that Naruto couldn't even pick up what she was saying. This girl was a basket case!

"Oh? Okay...." Naruto wasn't sure what was up with this girl, but she sure acted weird. She was way too quiet for his tastes, but she didn't look half-bad. She was pretty cute, but she kept slouching and hiding her figure under that large sweater. "Well, thanks anyway. Oh right, I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he said walking away but giving her a quick nod as he ran off to look for Sasuke.

"Oh! I'm, I mean, my n-name is Hyuga Hinata!" she shouted after him as he took off.

Naruto ran off until the girl just became a dot on the horizon, but he still saw no sign of Sasuke. This was really starting to bug him. How hard should it be to find on guy on Campus? Naruto then realized what a weird question that was, as he just saw that this Campus was freaking huge! He decided to give up, and took that- what was her name?- that weird girl's advice and went to register. If Sasuke was anywhere, it would most likely be there.

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Ebisu came to the Konoha Boarding school with the best teaching credentials of any ninja to ever walk through the school's doors. He didn't want to appear too cocky, but when he was interviewed for the position the board had not only offered him a position as a teacher of advanced ninjutsu, but offered him a seat on the board of educational advances for the school. He wasn't at all surprised when they accepted him. Ebisu was born of the elite and he would always be meant to teach the elite.

So for ten years Ebisu stayed at Konoha Boarding School not only because he loved teaching, but admittedly the job had many advantages that he could fully appreciate. It gave him certain connections to nobles, ancient ninja clans, even to one of the Legendary Sannin. Plus, he was in line to start tutoring the Hokage's grandson soon as long as everything went well. Coming to this school was definitely one of Ebisu's greatest career choices.

So because of his great respect for the school and its teachers, students, and reputation, Ebisu believed in the school and most of all he believed in its headmistress, Tsunade-sama. He never questioned the workings of the school or the choices it made. Sometimes, they had hit rough patches from Tsunade-sama's reckless behavior at times, and sure he worried when they didn't accept certain noble students from strong ninja clans despite the offers their parents made for donations, but all in all, he never really worried that the school was in any sort of trouble or anything.

Then there was this boy.

Ebisu was looking at the transcripts of one Uzumaki Naruto and it did not look at all professional. Mediocre grades and abilities, and in registration, his profile ranked him so incredibly low that Ebisu had to bring up once more with the rest of the staff how ludicrous it was to let this boy come. The only good thing that could be said about the boy was that he had mastered the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Otherwise, his jutsu list was short and lacking any substance. Plus, most of the jutsus he listed were noted as only half-way completed at best. PLUS, one of the jutsus he listed was... was... that atrocious abomination of a technique, the Oiroke No Jutsu......

Ebisu had, admittedly, acted unprofessional upon seeing it, but that did not mean anything. He simply had a small lapse in judgment when he saw it. He hadn't – as Izumo had put it – exploded in vitality like some old codger-less pervert.

The boy would definitely be a trouble maker, a true stain upon the school's excellent reputation, and for that Ebisu wouldn't stand aside and let the boy come to this school. He couldn't change the opinion of the board or Tsunade-sama, but all he had to do was make it clear to everyone that the curriculum was one not be taken lightly. Especially by a boy who definitely could not hold up to the necessary standards of a student at Konoha Boarding School.

Ebisu knew it would be difficult, but if he played it smart, and made sure to not make his hatred for Uzumaki too obvious, then he would be able to get rid of him by the end of the year. The first thing Ebisu would do was make sure to put as much pressure on Naruto as possible. By giving him the lowest rank possible, and assigning Naruto the most notoriously difficult teachers in the curriculum, Naruto would surely crack.

Before all of that though, he would need something to send Naruto a message but wasn't tied at all back to Ebisu. He needed to show Naruto, that he didn't belong in this school. Ebisu had killed, captured, and done much else in his career as a ninja. Taking care of one ordinary boy like this would be simple.

So, he began his plotting....

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Naruto hurried to his room looking at the numbers rapidly passing him by as he went. He bumped into a bunch of people along the way, but he didn't pay any attention as finding his room was of streaming importance. He had heard that there was supposed to be some opening ceremony or something where all the first years met the rest of the school and it would be starting soon. Naruto figured that would be the time to finally meet Uchiha Sasuke, so he needed to be able to dump all of his stuff somewhere before he went.

"Where.... where..... where...." Naruto muttered to himself as he ran down the hallway, searching for the right numbers. Then he finally found them, gave a breath of relief and opened the door.

To get jumped.

Naruto fell to the ground with a loud thud, as something crawled all over his face, biting, scratching, snarling, and generally causing a mess to Naruto's face with absolute abandon. Naruto tried his best to get the thing the hell off of his face, but it was like trying to pour water on a cat; he just couldn't get it to stay still! Naruto was getting some hand-signs ready, willing to do whatever it took to take this animal off his face, when all of a sudden the dog stopped still and hopped off his face. Now, he was sure it was a dog though as it looked up at him with its tongue hanging out and a grin on its face. It was just a small little pup!

"What the hell?" Naruto asked as he went to beat the hell out of this little monster when it turned and ran up to this other, bigger dog that Naruto hadn't even noticed before. Then the dog stood up on its hind legs and ran its hand along the smaller dog's back. Wait, what?

"I see you met our new roommate Akamaru. Huh? What? Yeah, I agree, he does seem pretty scrawny. I wonder what kind of rank he got too," the kid said to the little dog – Akamaru apparently – like he could actually understand what it was saying or something.

"Huh? Who are you? What's with dog?" Naruto asked, wiping the small amounts of blood that had appeared on his face.

"Oh, right. My name is Inuzuka Kiba, and this little guy is Akamaru. We're going to be your new roommates apparently. Frankly, I kind of pity you. Akamaru is gonna be shedding for the next couple weeks," Kiba said with a shrug as he patted Naruto on the shoulder, then went back to his bed, now that Naruto realized that's what that mess was, to lay out some more of his clothes.

"Wait, you brought your dog to the school? Is that even allowed?" Naruto asked as he dropped his bag on the bed that looked untouched, and closed the door with his foot.

"Well, not a regular dog, but Akamaru and me, we got special treatment. You see, not only is Akamaru my pet, but he's my buddy. He's my nin-dog. So I get to bring him because he's my partner in ninjutsu," Kiba said somewhat proudly before Akamaru gave a loud bark of gratitude over his shoulder.

Naruto couldn't help but think that that was a sort of cheap way around the rules, and he didn't really know what a nin-dog was exactly, but at the same time he thought it was pretty cool. It was lame to say that you're best friend was a dog, but at least Kiba didn't have to come to this school all alone or something. Naruto had yet to make a friend here, and with what happened with Sakura and that bitch she was with, he had a small dark thought that maybe...

"So, what rank did they stick you with?" Kiba asked as he walked up to Naruto, apparently done with his unpacking (though you wouldn't be able to tell if you looked at his side of the room).

"Rank? Oh, you mean that letter grade thing! Yeah, that guy with the sunglasses gave this to me..... here we are!" Naruto said as he fished through his bags until he pulled out the charm-like object with the paper inside. It had a large capital letter inscribed on it that Naruto read aloud. "Yeah, they gave me an E-rank. Whatever the heck that means..." Naruto said as he tied the charm to the back of his bag.

The next thing Naruto heard was the sound of a bag dropping to the ground and Kiba looking at him like Naruto was wearing a funny hat or something. Then the laughter started. And it didn't stop. Then when Kiba ran out of breath, and started heaving, he calmed down and the laughter died. Then he started up again after a look at Naruto and continued laughing. Soon, Naruto became a little pissed so he gave Kiba a kick to the back to help him regain his form.

"What the hell is so funny?" Naruto asked indignantly as he felt like kicking Kiba a second time.

"Well, it's just... dude, an E-rank? That sucks man! The only way you could have gotten an E-rank is if you really sucked dude!" Kiba said as he got up and patted Naruto on the head like he was another dog or something.

"Oh yeah, well, what rank did you get ya' hotshot!?" Naruto asked as the heat rose to his face, and his hand shaking in a fist. This Kiba guy was starting to get on his last nerve, and he got the urge to suddenly punch this guy in the face or something. Or something more sensitive like his crotch.....

"Me? I got a D-Rank, but it's not as simple as that dude. With every rank in this school, each one is so far apart from the next on a scale of strength, that it isn't even fair to compare to people on different ranks. I mean, if I met someone who was a C-rank, I'd be really impressed because I bet that's the highest any first-year was going to get. D-rank is probably about average, but an E-rank! Those guys usually drop out in a month from the pressure!"

Kiba continued his laughter from there, and it even seemed like Akamaru was joining in before they began to walk out of the room slamming the door behind them. Even though it was muffled by the door and other noises in the hallway, Kiba's laughter still carried to Naruto's ears and he decided that he didn't like his new roommate very much.

So, it had all come together. Naruto didn't want to say it out loud, but ever since he had gotten his acceptance letter to Konoha Boarding School, Naruto had wondered why they had accepted him. Naruto knew for a fact that he was one of the greatest in the world, but in school he hadn't done so well, so being accepted here was like a dream. Now though, maybe that dream was turning out to be too good to be true.

Naruto hadn't known that the ranks were going to be like this, and he was definitely surprised that he had apparently gotten the lowest rank, but he thought that he did okay in his registration evaluation. Whatever this school expected of its students, it must have been great. Plus, judging from what Shikamaru and Choji had told him, there were a lot of students at the school who had family techniques passed down to them, and some might even have Kekkei Genkais! Naruto didn't even know where his last name came from....

Naruto fell down on his bed and placed his head in his hands, feeling that it felt a light all of a sudden. What was he doing? How was he going to survive here? He had always goofed off in school before, but he had also gotten by okay in class. He was already failing here and it was just the first day! Naruto felt the room was spinning around him, and all of a sudden he had to wonder, could he do it?

Could he become Hokage?

**A/N: End of Chapter 2. Kind of boring, but it introduces a lot of the important characters, so necessary. Next chapter, Sasuke and Naruto meet and their meeting is not what you'd expect.... or what you exactly expect. Also, all you romance fans will have to wait a while, but I promise you, it will be angsty. Until then, enjoy the upcoming action! Rawr!**


End file.
